'Stop the bleeding' -- Group fights self-inflicted wounds

QUINCY, Mass. -- A group of friends tries to stop a girl from harming herself, and thousands flock to the cause

Jane Mackay

"Stop the bleeding" are the words in blue on Katherine Hollien's black T-shirt.

Katherine, 14, has no scars on her arms, but the words on her shirt represent the pain of those who do -- those whose scars are self-inflicted.

Katherine, of Hanover, is one of thousands of teens responding to a group called To Write Love on Her Arms. It's a nonprofit organization formed in 2006 to help Renee, a teenager from Florida who sought help to stop cutting herself.

Writer and founder Jamie Tworkowski wrote about her recovery in an online essay and thousands worldwide got behind the effort and bought T-shirts like Katherine's in support.

Tworkowski's essay described five days spent with Renee after a treatment center rejected her, deeming her too risky. She was 19, high on cocaine, had been drinking alcohol and was depressed, suicidal and carving obscenities into her forearm.

Tworkowski wrote: "We became her hospital and the possibility of healing fills our living room with life. It is unspoken, and there are only a few of us, but we will be her church, the body of Christ coming alive to meet her needs, to write love on her arms."

Grassroots Effort

He hand-sold a few dozen T-shirts to pay for Renee's treatment. One sale led to another and soon rock 'n' roll groups, like Paramore, wore them while performing and teens like Katherine and her friends became interested.

Katherine said she and her friend Emily Abi-Kheirs are huge Paramore fans and first saw the band wear T-shirts with the To Write Love on Her Arms logo.

Then, "We were at the Wrentham outlets and we saw a girl with the shirt on," said Katherine, who like Emily will be entering ninth grade at Hanover High School this fall. "So we went home and Googled it. We found the Web site and we thought it was wicked cool."

The organization's official MySpace page lists more than 115,000 friends, hundreds of whom have posted their own messages of support and tales of struggle.

Users of the social networking site Facebook.com have created 16 groups dedicated to the movement that together list more than 18,000 members. A search for the phrase on Google brings up almost 4.5 million references.

And all without any coverage in the mainstream press.

Songs of Praise

Music gave the group a huge boost in May 2006 at Cornerstone Florida, an annual Christian rock festival.

Hayley Williams, the 19-year-old singer of the fast-rising rock band Paramore, told the crowd to check out To Write
Love, which had a booth on the grounds.

It was during this show that Tworkowski said he realized To Write Love had staying power.

"After the set, it seemed the entire crowd walked straight to our booth," Tworkowski said in an e-mail. "It was clear that something was happening."

Hanover teens Katherine and Emily are lobbying for their favorite Boston group to join the cause.

"It'd be really cool if Boys Like Girls got into it," Emily said.

To Write Love will also have a tent at each stop on the Vans Warped Tour, a two-month nationwide music tour featuring more than 50 bands. Attended largely by teens and people in their early 20s, the tour is an ideal vehicle for spreading the movement's message, Tworkowski said.

Strong Message

The strength of the coolness factor notwithstanding, the movement's story and message are what compel teens like Emily, Katherine and their friend Jessica Stacy to buy To Write Love shirts and spread news of its existence.

For Jessica, who stumbled upon the Web site through links on friends' MySpace pages, the tales of fellow teens' struggles had a personal resonance.

"To Write Love on Her Arms helped because I was going through that," she said. The Web site and blogs were "a place that was safe and secure. It's not an adult saying, 'This is wrong.'"

That feeling of safety and security is important for the treatment and recovery of a self-injurer, said psychologist Wendy Lader -- but it's not enough.

"There's still a feeling of alienation because the other person doesn't understand the depth of experience" of the teen struggling with depression, suicide, drug abuse or self-injury, said Lader, who co-founded the treatment program S.A.F.E. (Self Abuse Finally Ends), in 1986.

S.A.F.E. is one of seven organizations selected earlier this year by To Write Love to be regular recipients of money raised through donations and sales of merchandise.

"We want our audience to know where these needs are being met," Tworkowski wrote in the e-mail.

Inspiration

Emily, Jessica and Katherine have all been inspired by the movement to help others.

"I want to be into activism when I grow up," Jessica said.

Emily wants to "do something with music." She has already composed a few pieces. Or she would like to become a psychiatrist.

Tworkowski's way with words has struck the strongest chord with Katherine, who would like to earn her living as a writer.

After describing their goals, the girls muse upon the possibility of pooling their specialties to really make a difference among those in need.

At 14 years old, they realize it will be a while before they fulfill their dreams, but that doesn't dull their enthusiasm.

It's enthusiasm like this that Tworkowski hopes will help to open the door to conversation about a reality that's bigger than people think -- or maybe want to know.

"More than half our audience struggles with depression and self-injury," Tworkowski wrote in the e-mail. "That suggests this is much more than a T-shirt phenomenon. These are people living in dark places.

"A friend of mine told me there's no such thing as suicide prevention. This is an attempt to prove him wrong, to say that love can change a life."

Jane Mackay can be reached at jmackay@ledger.com.

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